Michael F. Bird's Blog

Translation 21 But now, apart from the Torah, God’s righteousness has been manifested, being witnessed by the Torah and the Prophets.  22 God’s righteousness is unveiled through faith in Iēsous the Anointed One for all those who believe; for there is no partiality; 23 because all have offended and are shorn of God’s glory, 24 […]

D. Clint BurnettStudying the New Testament Through Inscriptions Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2020. Available at Hendrickson and Koorong. During my PhD studies I read Corpus inscriptionum judaicarum compiled by Jean-Baptist Frey (abbrev. CIJ). It was a terrific resource that showcased nearly every extant ancient inscription about Jews and Judaism from antiquity and it was very useful for my […]

Did the apostle Paul think of Christ as an angel who became human and then returned to heaven? A minority of scholars have thought this the case.[1] When Paul refers to Christ as the “heavenly man” (epaouranios) in 1 Cor 15.48-49 it could imply that Christ is the heavenly archetype of Adam[2] or else a […]

Christians and Governing Rulers (Rom 13:1-7)  Translation 1 Let every person be subject to the imperial authorities; for there is no authority except from God, as those authorities have been instituted by God. 2 So that, the one rebelling against authority rebels against what God has appointed, and rebels will receive due recompense. 3 For […]

People often ask me how do I find a thesis topic for a PhD? In my case, I read N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, pp. 308-10 and I was intrigued by how Jesus’s mission to Israel related to the emergence of the Gentile mission in the early church. How do you get from, […]

T. J. BettsNehemiah: A Pastoral & Exegetical Commentary.Lexham, 2020 Reviewed by Andrew Judd (Associate Lecturer in Old Testament, Ridley College, Melbourne) Nehemiah has suffered some neglect in Christian preaching so it is encouraging to see this new volume focused on a Christian reading of the book’s pastoral implications. The commentary opens with a concise nine […]

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the […]

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother” (Col 1:1). How should we read “Christ Jesus”? While the Greek word Christos may function as a proper name, I do not think it has lost all of its titular or honorific significance (see Matthew Novenson on the “honorific” side). […]

A few months ago conservative Christian influencer James White was warning of the dangers of empathy, even calling it sinful. Now, if one means empathy in the sense of emotional coercion, then obviously that’s not good. However, White was defining empathy as something someone does to make you feel guilty for their trauma (like racism […]

I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to review and respond to Dr. Bowen’s book on African-American Interpretation of the apostle Paul. I consider the book to be not only highly informative account of Pauline reception history and American religious history, but also truly gripping, documenting as it does the cruel subjugation of African-American people, […]